NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Subscribers to the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY will please notice, on their printed address, the date indicating the expiration of their subscription, and notify us of any error made in printing.

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Remittances should be made by draft on New York, Post-office money order, or registered letter, as we cannot be responsible for any losses.

The postage on the WEEKLY, which, if paid in advance, is 5 cents per quarter, or 20 cents per annum, must be paid by subscribers at their own post-office.

NOTES IN SEASON.

MESSRS. SHEPARD & GILL, the publishers of Wilkie Collins' new story, "The Dead Alive," announce that the advance orders for the book have compelled a brief delay in the publication. The book was to have been issued on Monday, but on Saturday the publishers received advance orders for over 3,000 copies, and in order to supply the trade simultaneously they were compelled to defer the date of publication.

THE author of "Rutledge" will soon issue a new book for the Lenten season, called "Dear Feasts of Lent."

THE Macmillans' trade dinner in London was so very successful, that almost the whole edition of "Holland House," as well as of other volumes, was exhausted by the orders on that occasion, and though the book was advertised and extensively reviewed in this country, only enough copies arrived previous to New Year's to whet the public appetite. Orders poured in by mail and telegraph, but none could be su plid for the holiday trade. The book is a most beautiful one, and will be as interesting for as many years to come as old

Holland House itself has been in the past. The trade will be glad to learn that a new supply has been manufactured in England, and that an American invoice is now in the Custom House.

MAX MUELLER'S remarkable lecture " On Missions," delivered lately in Westminster Abbey, and which, from the place of its delivery and its positions as to Buddhism and other non-Christian religions, awakened wide comment in England, is to be republished immediately by the Scribners. Agassiz's Lectures on the Structure of Animal Life, first delivered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, long out of print, are to be issued in a new edition. Bayard Taylor's résumé of travels in "Central Asia," for the " Library of Travel," the fourth volume of the "Speaker's Commentary," and the "Minor Prophets" in Lange's Commentary will follow early in the season; and later will come an important book by Prof. John Stuart Blackie, of Edinburgh, on "Self-Culture-Intellectual, Moral, and Physical;" the second volume of Froude's Ireland, which will extend to three, and the fourth of Curtius' "History of Greece."

THE Scribners desire us to call attention to the fact that the price of "A Very Young Couple will be $1.25, and not $1.50, as was at first advertised.

A NEW Volume will shortly be added to Bohn's Standard Library (imported by Scribner, Welford & Armstrong) in Eckerman's "Conversations of Goethe." This important work has hitherto been published in three volumes, and has of late years been scarce at that; the present excellent edition contains the three in one, and will be at the usual in Sir John Bowring's translation, was the last price (retail, $1.40 currency). Schiller's Poems,

addition to this well-known series.

THE little work, " Among our Sailors," by Consul Jewell, which is characterized as an American Plimsoll, and will, it is hoped, do much to reform the treatment of that class of workers, will be published immediately by the Harpers.

BESIDES the books we have already noted as preparing for publication during the approaching season at G. P. Putnam's Sons, we have to men. tion "The Philosophy of English Literature," by Prof. John Bascom, of Williams College, lately elected to the Presidency of the University of lectures in Boston; a life of Gen. George Dashiell Wisconsin, an important work, first given as Lowell Bayard, a Bayard of the late war, prepared from his letters and journals by his father, Saml. J. Bayard; and a translation by Drs. Mann and St. John of the recent valuable work by Prof. Ludwig Buhl, of Munich, on "Inflammation of the Lungs, Tuberculosis and Consumption."

THE success of the memoirs of Sara Coleridge has called forth to public attention her remarkable fairy tale of "Fantasmion, Prince of Palmiand," which is announced by Henry Holt & Co. on this side. The original review of the work in the London Quarterly spoke of it as 66 unique in its kind, pure as a crystal in diction, tinted like the opal with the hues of an ever-springing sunlit fancy."

.......Wells.

Wells. 25 C....... Althaus.-A Treatise on Medical Electricity, Theoretical and Practical and its Use in the Treatment of Paralysis, Neuralgia, and other Diseases. 3d ed., enl. and rev. 146 illustr. By Jul.us Althaus, M.D. 8°, pp. 729. $6. Lindsay & B. Beale.-Protopiasm; or, Matter and Life. 3d ed., very much enl. With 16 colored full-page plates. By Lionel S. Beale, M.D. 12°, pp. 385. $4.50...... Lindsay & B. Broadus.-Immersion Essential to Christian Baptism. By John A. Broadus, D.D., LL.D. 24, pp. 66. Pap. 8 c. Bible & Pub. Soc. Buckingham.--A Self-Made Woman; or, Mary Idyl's Trials and Triumphs. By Emma May Buckingham. 12°, PP. 343. $1.50..... ...Wells. Campbell.-The Lives of the Chief Justices of England. By Lord Campbell, author of " Lives of the Lord Chancel. lors of England." (In 4 vols.) Vol. 2. Illustr. 8°. $3.50. Estes & L.

Clark, D. W. See Curry. Cobden.-Going on a Mission. By Paul Cobden 12°, PP. 354 $1.25... ..... Lee & S. Collins.-The Dead Alive. By Wilkie Co lins. 16°. $; pap. 60 c.... ..Shepard & G. Curry.-Life Story of Rev. Davis Wasgatt Clark, D.D., Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Compiled from original sources. By Daniel Curry, D.D. 12, pp.

336. $1.50..... ..Nelson & P. Forrester. - Little Peachblossom; or, Rambles in Central Park. By Francis Forrester, Esq. Illustr. 12, pp. 230. $1.25..... .....Nelson & P. Gill. The Martyred Church. A Memorial of the Burning of Trinity Church. By William F. Gill. With several

characteristic designs by Hammatt Billings. 12". $2.

Shepard & G. Harvard University Catalogue (The), 1873 74. 12, pp. 337. Pap......

Sever.

Henry-After the Truth. By Mrs. Sarepta M. J. Hen y. 12, pp. 286. $1.25... .Hitchcock & W. With special

Johnson.-Lectures on Bright's Disease. reference to Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment. By George Johnson, M. D, etc., Prof. of Medicine in King's College, etc. Iliustr. 8°. $2.25.... ....Putnam. Landor.-Cameos. Selected from the Works of Walter Savage Landor. By E. C. Stedman and T. B. Aldrich. 12, pp. 128. $2.... .Osgood. Ohio. The General Railroad Laws of the State of Ohio, in force January 1, 1874, together with certain other Laws and the Provisions of the Constitution of the State affecting Railroad Corporations, with Notes of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Ohio, relating thereto. By James A. Wilcox. 8, pp. vi., 380. $5... .... Clarke. Stedman and Aldrich. See Landor. Varney.-The Young People's History of Maine, from its Earliest Discovery to the Final Settlement of its Boundaries in 1842. By Geo. J. Varney, Member of the Maine Hist. Soc. Adapted for use in schools. Illustr. 12, pp 258. $1.25.... .......Dresser, McL. & Co. Waring.-Practical Therapeutics, considered chiefly with reference to Articles of the Materia Medica. By Edward John War ng, F. R.C.S., etc. 3d Am., from the last Lon don ed. 8. $5; leath r, $6......... ...Lindsay & B. Wesley, John. See Wise.

Wilcox, James A. See Ohio.

Williams.-Apostolical Church Polity. By Wm. Williams, D.D. 24, pp. 71. Pap. 8 c...... ..Bible & Pub. Soc. Wise-The Story of a Wonderful Life (John Wesley). By Daniel Wise, D.D. 12°, pp. 318. $1.25..Hitchcock & W.

Notes on Copyright.

THERE is a good deal doing, here and there about the world, in the matter of copyright, although the American movement for international copyright is at present quite asleep. An international commission to revise the treaties relative to literary property and fine arts copyrights between France and England, met at the Foreign Office in Paris, last month. The members of the commission are: M. Paul Féval (as representative of the Society of Authors and Dramatic composers), MM. Müller, Oscar Comettant, Paul Saunière, and Pierre Zaccone (for the Society of "Gens de Lettres "). and Mr. Kennedy and his Secretary for the English Government. Athenæum says:

The

The French representatives protested strongly against the system of "adaptations," which they considered were, in point of fact, piracies now carried on in England. Mr. Kennedy is stated to have replied, he felt sure the British Government would afford satisfaction for any abuses which could be properly brought home. Out of thirty-seven States which have conventions with France, only two, England and Spain, have not declared against the plan of depositing copies of works as guarantees of proprietorship on the part of French authors. The system of registration at Stationers' Hall is regarded as mest inconvenient-a permanent menace to au. thors who fear to see their rights confiscated for the profit of everybody except themselves; and the impossibility of always registering within three months has been recognized by the Commission. It is therefore formaliy decided that the sys. tem of registration at Stationers' Hall will be abandoned by Great Britain, and that a more liberal treaty of copyright be entered into-one more consonant with honesty.

There has been some complaint, also, against the English system of registration, since no index of titles is kept at Stationers' Hall, and an author who has entered a title in good faith may be heavily mulcted on its publication by an author or publisher who has already used it. Indeed, the whole English system has met with severe criticism. At a recent meeting of the Social Science Association in London, Mr. Thomas Webster, Q C., F. R.S., read a paper arguing that the Copyright Acts of 1842 and 1847 were failures, and proposing that the Association move for their reform. Several publishers took part in the discussion which followed, and the matter is now in the hands of a special committee.

It has long been an abuse of the American copyright law that all sorts of manufacturers' labels could be entered under the title of "prints." An amendment of the law, excluding such things from the protection of copyright, and providing for their registry at the Patent Office instead, was approved by the Joint Committee on the Library, and reported favorably to the House of Representatives by the Committee on Patents at the last session of Congress, but failed to become a law in the rush of other business. Such a reform would relieve the library authorities of a very unnecessary burden, and should not fail this year.

Among the many divisions of opinion on the copyright question, there are to be found some advocates of a perpetual copyright. We suppose scarcely any one is aware that there is one book in the world, and probably but one, enjoying that privilege. This is Lord Clarendon's History of the Rebellion; which is printed at the "Clarendon Press " of the University of Oxford, and in which that University holds perpetual copyright. Mr. Macmillan, of London, whose house is the agent for the University, writes in answer to inquiry: "There is no doubt this is either by royal mandate of Charles II., or by act of ParliamentI believe the former.”

"Look here, upon this picture, and on this." The English publishing trade supports two repiesentative organs, the Publishers' Circular and the Bookseller, not to mention its liberal patronage of the many literary papers, such as the Athenæum, Spectator, Saturday Review, Examiner, and others that chien eend on our lishers' advertisements. We have just received the Christmas umbers of both trade papers, and well may the editors be proud of their support, and the book-trade of its representation. The Christmas number of the former embraces 190 pages, of which 23 are editor. ial, 167 advertisements (including 92 illustrated pages); that of the latter, 250 pages, of which 46 are editorial and 204 advertisements (including some 90 illustrated pages). As most of these advertisements come from the same sources, 371

pages of advertisements have been contributed by the English publishers in one week. This speaks well for the English book-trade. Now to the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, which is the only recog nized organ of the American book- ade. The Christmas number embraces 60 pages, of which 20 are editorial, and 39 bona fide advertisements (including four illustrated pages of one house). Rather discouraging, considering that the Christmas number of the WEEKLY is expected to make up for the losing numbers of the season. Alas, poor PUBLISHERS' Weakly!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. The interests of the trade cannot be better served than by a full discussion by its members of al questions which affect it. Our columns are always open to communications on any such subject, and we cordially invite the trade to express any sug gestions or opinions of interest or value in "Letters to the Editor."

An Importart Correspondence.

[WE are requested to call the attention of the trade to the following important correspondence. It would be manifestly improper for us to discuss a question now before the courts for decision, but, meanwhile, booksellers may draw their own conclusions.-ED.]

SYRACUSE, N. Y., Jan. 3, 1874.

Messrs. Woolworth, Ainsworth & Co.

GENTLEMEN: What should we do in regard to the circular of 18th ult., issued by J. W. C. Gilman, prohibiting us from selling recent revisions of P. D. and S. copybooks. Of course you are fully posted, and know whether or not we are liable for any damages if we continue the sale. We never before heard of the house of Gilman, and don't propose to take much stock in it. Have they any right to demand royalty? Yours truly,

WYNKOOP & LEONARD.

NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 1874.

Messrs. Wynkoop & Leonard, Syracuse. GENTLEMEN: We reply to your favor of the 3d instant, which came duly to hand, that J. W. C. Gilman & Co. have brought suit against us, claiming damages on the ground that our Payson, Dunton & Scribner system of penmanship is an infringement on the Williams & Packard system, of which they claim to be the publishers and proprietors. To this purely baseless and malicious charge, we reply:

First. That the Williams & Packard books were first published in New York in 1868, and as then issued were wholly unlike any books known to the public. The present proprietors, who came in possession of the books early in 1873, at once commenced a revision of some of the numbers, and these revisions which are shown as proof of our infringement, are carefully prepared imitations of our books, and were copyrighted in 1873, not in 1868, as may be seen by reference to the cover. Second. That we have promptly responded to their attack by instituting a suit against them for infringement of our copyright on the Payson, Dunton & Scribner books of a prior date.

Third. As to the threat of Gilman & Herriman to prosecute booksellers who venture to sell the Payson, Dunton & Scribner books, we will give all such booksellers a bond of indemnity, by which we undertake to defend and hold them harmless from the consequences of such sales, and that no attention need be paid to their circular.

Fourth. By way of complete and final answer to this frivolous suit by Gilman & Herriman, which was instituted merely to i timidate booksellers and to embarrass ourselves, we present the decisive opinion of the Hon. B. R. Curtis, late Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, Washington, and J. B. Robb, Esq., a distinguished patent and copyright lawyer of Boston:

CORRESPONDENCE.

FROM PHILADELPHIA. PHILADELPHIA, January 6, 1874.-Philadelphia might be regarded as the storm centre of the recent financial hurricane, and, arguing by analogy, it might be supposed that its business interests had suffered in proportion to its nearness to the commotion. Happily the real condition of things, so far at least as the book trade is concerned, does not agree with the hypothesis. The year's trade, taken as a whole, is far from having been a bad one. Among the publishing houses, the actual number of new books issued is smaller than in former years. Lippincott published about the same number as usual, but very few juveniles. Claxtons about two-thirds their usual number. Porter & Coates were unusually active, and the number of their books was in excess of former years; Kay & Bros. about the average; the Sunday-School Union twenty per cent. below the average; the Presbyterian Board, for reasons apart from business considerations, published scarcely anything; Martien published two or three books in the spring, but nothing since; Henry C. Lea's list was a large one; Peterson's was below the average; while the lists of Baird, Lindsay & Blakiston, Baptist Publication House, Perkinpine & Higgins, and Cummiskey, were small. The books issued by the subscription houses were also below the average in number, and with the school-book publishers also the productive activity was less than usual. The number of books, however, in a more or less forward state of preparation, is in excess of former seasons, though the probable date of their appearance is yet too remote to make mention of them advisable. The cause of this is the "holding back" policy adopted by many of the houses, in consequence of the dull spring and disastrous fall. Reviewing the wholesale trade generally, the spring was decidedly dull; but the fall trade opened early, and, until the disastrous 16th of September, indicated a most prosperous termination to the year. November was very gloomy; but the trouble had reached its culminating point, and December opened with a brisk business, which throve rapidly until the holidays. The feeling is unanimous that the year's business ended much better than was anticipated, and that, all things considered, it was very little, if any, behind the average.

The report of the retail booksellers is even better than that of the publishers. The actual number of sales was very much larger than previous years, though the extent of individual purchases smaller. Expensive illustrated gift books sold very badly, and it seems to be the opinion here that that class